I was outside yesterday when i noticed a small swarm hanging in my lemon balm bush/tree. So i collected it in a nuc. That part all went fine.

Later i checked the nuc as quite a few bees had returned to the clustering spot.

I found the queen (dead) had been balled in the nuc, in fact the bees were still balled around her.

I have some questions.

Firstly seems strange that they are swarming this time of the year, they have plenty of room, but they are all incredibly strong hives. do we think this is normal? I have identified the hive they came from and been through all of my hives and there are no (more) queen cells.

Secondly why would they kill their queen, so soon after swarming, with no eggs they are surly destined to perish?

Half are now still in the box, about half again are hanging on the cluster spot and the rest have gone back to the mother hive.

A friend of mine had a similar interesting situation a few weeks ago - shaking some frames during an inspection the queen was shaken off and took flight - bees followed her and balled her... haven't got a clue why.

In the hive they swarmed from was there any queen cells?

Could it have been a virgin queen returning who got lost and went in to the wrong hive? realised her mistake and tried to fly off but the bees followed her?

Half are now still in the box, about half again are hanging on the cluster spot and the rest have gone back to the mother hive.

what to do.... what to do?

Suggestions?

I have no explanations as to what happened but id unite those bees outside into a different hive (newspaper) preferably in one on a different site, i find sometimes you can do your head in trying to figure out why, dont forget they are girls!